Pree Meet Deet Hike 12-8-12 Table Mt/Cedar loop

[Eric Peterson]

Meet a new TFF, kepPNW and Brad and Nat at the Bonneville Hot Springs today for a
pre Meet/Deet hike.

6:13 am departure for Table Mt. and the idea was to hit Green Leaf Peak
from the NW exit of Table but due to the snow and low visibility we changed
it up a tad.



Snow started falling a bit off above the Heartbreak Ridge PCT junction, love being snowed
on over rain any day

Poor Bosterson had to to wait again for the oldsters to change up our gear and could
hear us talking all old style about 100' away.





Snowy talus field was slow going too -





Privet comrade!



Cat prints in the boulder field?



And group shot up on Table -



We chilled out, literally, in some trees before heading to the NW rim for our Table exit,
played around with another little crappy PAS for fun, seems to take decent pictures -







Holy crap, descending off the NW ridge was just a little dicey at the very start but we all
made it down fine -





We decided to bail on the original hike plan and Brad convinced us to check out Cedar Mt.,
was all good, just no views over at Greenleaf and none of us, except Brad, had been to Cedar Butte and
Brad is the man!

Skid on the way to the Cedar junction -



Today's cool hiking buddies -



Brad and EP -



KEP and EP -



Nat and EP -



We headed down the Cedar Mt. trail and the mapset is matching up perfectly with my
GPS! Thanks Guy and Don for the tracks.

Kep experienced some Lumix lens shutter fail, hope that cleared up man!



Brad is telling how to go again -



Bos is just a happy hiker and can't wait to eat pizza and drink beer at the M/D!



$40 Canon Powershot Craigslist camera test -



Along the Cedar Mt. trail we bumped into two different groups.

This group is some nice Mazama's that let us get a big TFF style picture in and Brad
handed out some PH buttons to the guy who recognized me and whom I shared
a track with. Nice meeting you in person Der Wanderer!



Shortly after that we met group 2 that were trying to hike up to Table from Aldrich -



Nice meeting you gents!

Crappy Lumix tough cam shot -



Poor Karl is probably like "what did I get myself into hiking with these guys"





Hikers on the killer little Munra-esque ridge -







Karl's new stick-pic dealio -





Waterfall for Brian looking towards Hamilton from Cedar Ridge -



Bos is just hanging out on a tree or something -



Hiked down the trail to Cedar Falls and man that baby is raging, Karl has the pictures for that one.

Good job crossing the log too Karl, I just rock hopped but I was the only hiker with
GoreTex waterproof socks, even though I didn't boot dunk.





I think that was it aside from all the video footage I took.

4300' of EG and about 12 miles.

http://gpsfly.org/g/2005

Oh,my GPS 62s totally freaked out on the boulder field during snow and I think Karl's
Oregon 450 works a lot better than mine today!

Cya at the Meet/Deet

[kepPNW]

Wow, well Eric really told most of the story. And I can't believe he got it up here before the Meet & Deet, too! Unreal. I was really fortunate to be able to tag along with these guys. Couldn't believe their knowledge of that area, and felt like a kid in the backseat, along for the ride. Kept kidding that I was looking forward to getting home, and loading the track in Google Earth so I'd know where we'd been! Yeah, it was pretty foggy, so much so we didn't even bother going to the overlook at the summit. I think some of the photos below might illustrate that. Which, is the point of this post. Just adding a bit to "the official record" of the day, here.


At the first hint of daylight, the cameras come out!



Probably the closest we had to a "summit vista" this morning. Or overlook, anyway.



Nat rocketing up the boulders in the snow.



The rest of us bringing up the rear.



Brad putting together a little surprise for Eric.



Summit! Anyone see any point in heading off towards "the view" behind Eric?



Good excuse for a snack, though.



Heading towards the NW ridge, wondering whether to go Greenleaf or Cedar.



It was really beautiful, though, in an almost entirely white sorta way.



Descending the NW ridge.



Just the right amount of snow to really highlight the beargrass.



Magnificent trail!



Crossing under the powerlines, as we head towards Cedar Mtn.



At about 2200', the snow starts to wane, and its starting to feel a bit more like rain.



Can't believe Eric left out all the gorgeous clouds we were wholly enveloped within!



Still waiting to see what he does with the videos, though!



The views really opened up as we followed the spine of Cedar Mtn back into the gorge.



Inaugural stick-pic shot! Worked great, I gotta say. I'm definitely going to be using that a lot.



The clouds...



Somewhere on Cedar Mtn. I'll have to look in Google Earth to really be sure.






Note to my wife: Please notice they don't have a photo of me out there!

As you can see above, my camera was really taking on water at this point. It was an extremely hostile day for any camera out there. So, a few more, and we were outta there! (Or, at least, I gave up with more photos.)


Eric plunging ahead, almost as if he'd done this a 100 times before!

Just another great day to be in the woods!

Thanks again, guys, for having me with you. Doing that, then seeing everyone at the Meet & Deet, well... The last time I climbed Table Mtn, my "guide" was a column ripped from the newspaper, written by a couple folks at the party tonight.


Fantastic Finish! Me, Don & Roberta Lowe, and the PH.org calendar.

Just an amazing day all in all!

[Crusak]

I wanted to tag along on this one with you guys! Looks like you all had a good morning hike with quite a variety of weather to 'enjoy' along the way.

I'm always intrigued by the clothing choices of other hikers, and I try to pick up some good ideas from them. Wearing the rain jacket like a cape or poncho (like Brad is doing) is something I've considered more than once, mainly to help avoid overheating and sweating too much on ascents. And Comrade EP sporting the cool hat & OD green poncho thingy, that's awesome! Bosterson is dressed lighter and more casual than the rest of you in some pictures. But I would imagine that all of you went through some clothing changes throughout the day.

KepPNW, how did your camera mount work out for you? It looks like it did the job quite well, based on your 'eye in the sky' pictures.

[Splintercat]

I want one of those kepNW delios, too! Cool!

Nice report -- perfect weather up there..!

(good to see y'all last night, too!)

Tom

[kepPNW]

I wanted to tag along on this one with you guys! Looks like you all had a good morning hike with quite a variety of weather to 'enjoy' along the way.

I'm always intrigued by the clothing choices of other hikers, and I try to pick up some good ideas from them. Wearing the rain jacket like a cape or poncho (like Brad is doing) is something I've considered more than once, mainly to help avoid overheating and sweating too much on ascents. And Comrade EP sporting the cool hat & OD green poncho thingy, that's awesome! Bosterson is dressed lighter and more casual than the rest of you in some pictures. But I would imagine that all of you went through some clothing changes throughout the day.

Wish you'd have made it, too! That cape idea has an appeal, no doubt. I didn't put on my coat until we summited. Would have been wetter with it than without it, if ya know what I mean. But at 30° up top, it worked out well. Other than that, no changes at all - same gloves, hat, everything the whole way.

KepPNW, how did your camera mount work out for you? It looks like it did the job quite well, based on your 'eye in the sky' pictures.

I want one of those kepNW delios, too! Cool!

The StickPic is very cool! And Rod, the guy who makes them, was exceedingly nice and mailed it the same day I ordered. Bottom line, it worked extremely well. I think it takes a bit longer to get setup than EPs magnets, but that'll probably get quicker the more I use it. If I had a case that'd let me just leave it in place, it'd be almost instantly available anytime! I wasn't very worried about the camera slipping off. They recommend looping the strap around the pole, for safety, but I just zip-tied a small 'biner to the pole so that "insurance" was truly a snap!

Nice report -- perfect weather up there..!

(good to see y'all last night, too!)

Helluva day, all around, yep!

[Born2BBrad]

Awesome hike guys! There's lots more trails in that are to be explored, some of them mapped, others not.

BTW, here's what Cedar Falls looks like from below. Yesterday the creek had much more water in it, so the falls would have been more spectacular.

[kepPNW]

Wow! Worth the extra effort to get down to that falls, time allowing. Of course, yesterday, my photo at that point would've been a squishy pastiche of soft-focus blobs. I think the camera is finally starting to dry out.

Great hiking with you!

[kepPNW]

Just tossing in a couple of track maps.


Click map for enlargement.



Click map for enlargement.

Not sure what happened with that first flyby. Second time's the charm?

http://gpsfly.org/gps_map.php?gps_id=2005&w=645&h=440
Press "play" button to "fly" the track.

[Bosterson]

Cat prints in the boulder field?

Nice work Crocodile Hunter, but those are totally my fingertips from when I steadied myself going up. What kind of cat doesn't have a center pad anyway?

[Splintercat]

What kind of cat doesn't have a center pad anyway?

Er... a cat with abnormally long toes..? Or maybe just walking on its tiptoes to be even "QUIETER than a cat..?"

Tom